Everyone expected the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup
season to be one of unparalleled -- competition among drivers and teams to see who could
be the first to unseat Dale Earnhardt and the Goodwrench team as NASCAR Winston Cup
champions. More than two dozen changes had taken place during the off season as teams
fought to find a combination that would propel them to a higher competitive plane and
enable then to stop the black and white Goodwrench express.

There was little question that the combination of Dale Earnhardt and Richard
Childress had been a marriage made in heaven. Since Dale had joined the team at the
beginning of the 1984 season, the group had emerged as the winners of the year-long
championship battle five times -- and those five championships had com in the last eight
years. This team had won over 50 times in during their 10-year association and also had
finished second 32 times and third in 37 other events. In the 291 races that Earnhardt and
Childress competed in together since their union, the team had posted 119 top-three
finishes -- and incredible average of more than 40 percent -- and had totaled nearly $17/5
million in winnings. By 1994, Earnhardt has won more money driving for Childress than any
other driver had ever won in his career in the history of the sport!

No wonder the other teams in the garage area were trying everything in their power
to find a way to compete at the same level that the Goodwrench effort was on!

Taking a look at the competition he would face at the season-opener, Earnhardt felt
that three teams would be the most serious challenge to this attempt to tie Richard Petty
with sever Winston Cup championships. Dale felt that Mark Martin, most of all, would be
strong because of the combination of the driver, team personnel and determined car owner
Jack Roush could never be discounted.

Ernie Irvan had fit in well with Robert Yates team and would develop into a force
in '94. The third team able to mount a serious challenge, Dale reckoned, was Rusty Wallace
and his Penske South operation. Wallace's Miller-sponsored team had switched from Pontiacs
(after 10 victories) to Fords during the off-season, and if the team could come to terms
quickly with its new Thunderbird, Earnhardt felt that Rusty could be a serious challenger.